The round of financing will skyrocket the truck hailing firm's valuation to a staggering USD 10 billion.
On the evening of January 20, according to Chinese media outlet, All Weather TMT, Lalamove is about to complete a USD 1.5 billion F round of financing. The round is led by old shareholders such as Sequoia Capital China and Hillhouse capital, followed by Boyu capital, Tiger Fund, D1 capital and other institutions.
According to the news, the round of financing is divided into three rounds. The first two with a scale of USD 1.3 billion have been fully finalized, and the third, with a scale of USD 200 million, is in progress and has not yet been fully confirmed. The news was confirmed by the firm upon being asked by EqualOcean.
According to the Tianyancha App, as of now, Lalamove has accumulated more than eight rounds of financing, with a total amount of nearly USD 2.5 billion. On December 22, the company announced the completion of the USD 515 million round E financing backed by Sequoia Capital China fund, followed by old shareholders such as Hillhouse capital and Shunwei capital.
As of November 2020, the company had covered 352 cities in mainland China. The number of monthly drivers on the platform had reached 480,000 and the number of monthly active users came to about 7 million.
Although the firm has raised multiple financing rounds and its business has stretched, the track is still competitive with Didi's entrance by establishing didi freight in June last year. Six months later in December Didi freight started seeking a USD 400 million financing round. Later in January it announced that it was looking for a larger amount.
In November 2020 Manbang group, another truck-hailing platform, announced the completion of about USD 1.7 billion in financing and plans to launch intra-city freight through its platform. It is also worth mentioning that the investors in this round of financing include Lalamove's old shareholders Sequoia Capital China and Hillhouse capital.
It is expected that the competition in the intra-city freight track will intensify in 2021. We believe that large amounts of capital reserves will bring more opportunities for Lalamove to lead the track and compete with fellow peers.